As the use of wireless communication technology becomes more ubiquitous, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) are becoming more common. A WLAN includes a number of devices that are connected to each other over a wireless network. A common setup is to have a number of client devices establish a connection to a wireless access point. As these client devices connect to a particular wireless access point, they are associating with a particular network. A device that is associated with a particular network is able to communicate with other devices on that network within the constraints of any security policies which may be in place. However, if a device associated with a particular network desires to communicate with a device outside that network, the communication data will have to be processed by a router.
Oftentimes, a user of a particular computing device will be connected to a particular network and wish to use the services of a device connected to a different network. For example, a user may wish to send a document to a particular printer. However, it may be the case that that printer is associated with a different network than the one with which the user's device is associated. In this case, the user will have to disconnect his or her device from its current network and then associate that device with the same network with which the printer is associated. Alternatively, a network administrator may have set up the network so that certain communications between networks are allowed. However, such a setup consumes network resources.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.